Customer Reviews

Sony KDE-50XS955 50-Inch Widescreen WEGA Plasma Flat-Panel TV with Integrated HDTV Tuner

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I purchased a new Sony KDE-37XS955 37" Widescreen HDTV from Amazon, at full price, on 3/21/05. Amazon delivered the TV on 3/30/05 as promised in good packing condition. After unpacking and setting up the TV we turned the TV on. The sound was good but the picture was unrecognizable. Per Amazon policy I called Sony.

Day 1: Called Sony to report problem with TV.

Day 2: Sony repairman shows up to diagnose and make repairs. Repairman tells me
that Sony has instructed him get and replace 2 parts.

Day 3: Repairman calls to inform me that the parts are backordered and it could be
a week.

Day 7: Called repairman to check on part. Repairman says Sony tells him it could
be another week.

Day 14: Called repairman to check on part. Repairman says he still waiting on part
and just does not know when it will be in.

Day 15: Still no word on part. Call Sony and get representative that says he will
look into my problem and have someone call me in 24 hours.

Day 16: I do not receive a call so I call Sony. Representative says that they should
have informed me that a response could be 24 to 48 hours. They also
informed they did work weekends and would call me the next day.

Day 17: I do not receive a call so I again call Sony. Representative informs me that
my file has moved to "the next level" and that "those people" do not work
weekends and they would call me on Monday.

Day 19: Monday 5:00pm ET still no call. I call Sony again and demand to speak
with someone who can help me. Sony puts a supervisor on the phone who
takes my information and tells me they will call me back.

Day 20: Sony calls me back for the first time. They tell me the part is in and will
be out tomorrow to do the repair.

Day 21: Repairman comes out to do repair. Part does NOT fix problem. I call
Sony. They inform me they will call me back.

Day 22: Repairman calls to arrange pickup for TV. They want to take it in to the shop for testing and repairs. This is the 3rd time I have had to take off work to meet someone.

Day 23: Repairman picks up TV. I email Amazon for the forth time for help. They email back to say that they are unable to do anything. I exercise my right and dispute the charge on my credit card with Bank of America. I file a complaint with State of Florida Dept. of Consumer Services.

Day 29: No response from Sony or Amazon. If this were a new car, the State of Florida would have declared it a "Lemon" and made the seller refund the purchase price.

What I have is a real expensive paperweight, that I paid for a month ago, that neither Sony nor Amazon will fix or replace.

If any of these "New & Used" prices sound suspicious. Don't pay any attention to them.

They are scams... I've been emailing many of these sellers and they are all looking for payment outside of the Amazon.com system. I don't even know why I'm even referring to these sellers in plural because I'm certain they are all the same individual. All the registered sellers are brand new accounts. Offering a $649 brand new item that is listed for $19,999.00 (Zenith 60 inch).

When you make payment outside of the Amazon.com payments system, the Amazon.com guarantee does not apply. It is so disappointing that Amazon.com allows these items to even be listed.

Amazon.com customer service inquiry quote...
"All Amazon Marketplace and most Amazon Merchants purchases are paid through Amazon Payments; to circumvent this system is a serious violation of our terms of use."

I know this is blatantly obvious to nearly every buyer that uses Amazon and I'm not posting this review to act like I'm the smart detective here...
I simply just want to speak up in hopes that Amazon can put some effort into eliminating this annoyance.

I remember the first time I saw a large plasma screen TV. It was love at first sight for my eyes, but not my wallet. However, as prices came down, I decided to finally take the plunge and I bought this 50" plasma TV from Sony a couple of months ago. What a tremendous purchase! The picture on high definition channels is just tremendous. I find myself watching a lot more nature and travel shows than before because it seems a lot of these are presented in hi-def now and they just look terrific. DVD movies look very good as well, although hi-def presentations of these movies on my digital cable system look even better than on DVD. Regular digital channels (non-hi def) look pretty good as well.

I have my TV hooked up to a 5.1 surround system, so I can't vouch for the sound of the speakers that are integrated with the plasma set, but I am sure that they more than fine, but if you are willing to fork over the kind of money it takes to buy this set, not coordinating it with a good surround system seems like a waste to me. There are plenty of connections on the TV to create a nice setup.

After two months, I have absolutely zero complaints. I empathize with the folks who have posted here regarding troubles they have had with the TV and buying it online, but I went to a local home theater store for my purchase and although I probably paid a bit more, they answered my questions, set my system up, tested it thoroughly and have answered the questions I've had since the installation. For a purchase of this magnitude, that may be the way to go.

All in all, I'm very happy with my Sony and I think you will be as well.

a) Don't spend this much on this type of teevee, in 6 months it will be out of date, and unrepairable should it pack up
b) if you ARE going to spend this much (who are you? Paris Hilton?), don't even think of buying it online or mail order, go to Best Buy or any of the myriad tee vee stores, taste and try before you buy, then pay the extra to have them deliver and set up the teevee, and pay for an extended warranty that promises like for like replacement should the unit be unrepairable.

I didn't and lived to deeply, deeply regret it!

I bought this model in 2005 and enjoyed watching it for several years before moving and leaving it in the home we are selling (more on why the TV is relevant to that in a moment).

I fell in love with the picture on this Sony plasma as soon as I watched Deadwood in Dish Network high definition. When Mr. Swearingen stood on his balcony and looked down the main street of Deadwood you could almost believe you were there, the picture was so crisp and life-like (if there was scent-o-rama you would know you were there, probably holding your nose).

There have been several reviews here that have slammed how some companies handle sales/delivery and complaint process. This is relevant to the performance of the product itself and giving something just one star because of people and not product is unfair. This product is well-engineered and has some great features.

Consider the memory stick slot. Sounds like a gimmick, but think about it: you put a stick full of photos, videos, or music into the side of the TV and it plays them! Pictures become slide shows, with lots of effects and great background music if you like. We use this to impress prospective buyers of the house -- imagine a slide show of high definition photos on a brilliant 50 inch screen, set to music! As house prices have dropped we have offered to include the photos and the TV in the deal (no takers yet but we're still hopeful.

So is everything great about this TV? To be objective there are a couple of issues, but they are largely generic, not specific to this model. Plasma TVs have been criticized for "burn in" where one image leaves an impression on the screen visible after the image changes. We see no evidence of this from the content of movies or TV shows or DVDs, but you can get it, temporarily I might add, from program guides, pause buttons, and some aspect ratios.

We found that playing things full screen and running a slide show once in a while cleared out the problem. Another "problem" is that regular DVDs don't look as good as HD TV. So the DVD of Deadwood won't look as good as the copy you recorded on your DVR. But that is not Sony's fault and this TV takes HDMI input from BluRay players, so you can get high def Deadwood that way.

We have been very satisfied with this well-engineered and feature-full TV. If you can find a used one it should be way less than the $6000 original price, and well worth considering.

All though this 50" beast is 150Lbs. it's worth it's weight in gold. I've had the 50" Wega for over 2 years and love it! At first I was a little intimidated by it's massive size (having been used to a small 27"), but once I started got used to it there is no turning back. The TV does far better then most other Plasma TV's when it comes to non-HD TV viewing, though still slightly pixilated it's easy no issue. When looking at others they simply don't have the same up-conversion capabilities, which make this TV a stand out in it's class.

I am a Dish user and get exceptional pictures on their HD channels. As well when viewing DVDs on a Sony DVD unit (with up conversion) the picture is close to perfect (can only imagine how great this will be once we hook a Blu-Ray player!).

One concern was power and heat when buying this unit. I've noticed no difference in overall home power consumption but the unit does displace a far amount of heat. Given most buyers of a unit this big would likely not have it in a small area, I would expect any heat generate to not be much an issue overall.

The unit is also extremely quiet and also looks very nice in our entertainment room. I highly recommend this unit if you can get one, as Sony doesn't appear to selling / making them anymore.

PLASMA TV

Right off the bat, I would have to say that this piece of technology is definitely worth the price of it. Although I didn't get as good a price on my plasma TV as is being advertised here on Amazon, which makes me nervous for all you out there thinking of buying from here. A word the wise here folks: anything with a list price of nine thousand dollars, being sold for only 1,499 sounds a bit like a scam to me. All I'm trying to say here is to be careful! Anyway, now to the product itself, I would highly recommend to anybody who has the means, to purchase this TV. Not only is the picture and sound better, but it takes up less space than a normal TV. The only problem with it for me comes in the set up. It is a semi challenge in order to get the TV up onto a wall. You have to make sure the TV is centered on the wall, that it is straight, and whether or not you have enough support behind it to keep it up. However, other than that setup issue, I would have to give this TV 3.5 stars out of 5.

I think this is a wonderful plasma television to buy. It's 50 inches which is very large and can fit mostly any where. It has an Integrated HDTV Tuner so you can watch High Definition television much faster than other HD-Ready TV's. The styling of this television is so nice. The floating glass design looks so high-tech and the color choices Sony did is perfect. The picture on this TV is perfect especially since it has High Definition the picture becomes even better. I think Plasma TV's are pretty cool and I like them better than LCD. I like LCD for a computer monitor but for TV viewing plasma is the way to go. These do last up to 10 years if you maintain them and don't watch them for like 10 hours a day! I think this is one of those TV's you should look at. It's a perfect choice for your next television.